To Die Beautiful

Description

A gripping and timely debut novel by award-winning writer Buzzy Jackson, based on the true story of Hannie Schaft: a heroic young Dutch woman who joined the Resistance in Holland during World War II and became one of the Nazis’ most wanted women

Hannie Schaft, a shy law student living in Nazi-occupied Holland, never dreamed of being a fighter. But when the lives of Hannie’s two Jewish best friends are threatened in new and terrifying ways, she realizes she can no longer ignore the insidious rise of fascism in her country. Driven by moral outrage, Hannie becomes an armed member of the Dutch Resistance movement.

Hannie discovers her own untapped ferocity—wearing lipstick and heels to lure powerful Nazis close and assassinate them at point-blank range, bombing munitions factories, and becoming such a threat that Adolf Hitler himself dubs her the “Girl with Red Hair.” While humanity collapses around her, Hannie finds a chosen family of friends within the Resistance and falls in love with a dashing fellow resistor at a tremendous cost. Her greatest weapon is her determination to “stay human” (blijf altijd menselijk) . . . a promise increasingly difficult to keep. 

To Die Beautiful is an unputdownable novel of love, loyalty, and the limits we confront when our deepest values are tested, told with the emotional resonance of meticulously researched history.“This isn’t just a brilliant novel, it’s a measuring stick you’ll use determine what lengths you would go to protect those you love. How much would you risk and how much could you possibly endure? The legendary Hannie Schaft set the bar for all of us. We may not make it to her heights, but this inspiring book will expand our awareness of what’s possible, and haunt you in the best possible way.”
—Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

“Yes, To Die Beautiful is inspiring, empowering, and timely, compellingly detailed and impressively researched, but better still, it’s an immersive story of a terrifying warren of history through which our guide is the sort of hero we all need now: relatable and resolute and absolutely right. I am grateful to Buzzy Jackson for the introduction to the indomitable Hannie Schaft, a warrior I know I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come.”
—Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is

“I wish I’d written To Die Beautiful. Buzzy Jackson is a very talented writer and To Die Beautiful is headed for the best-seller list. So, be the first on your block . . .”
—Alan Furst

“To Die Beautiful brings Hannie alive and I finished it in almost one gulp! What an amazing, inspiring, true-life hero she was. Her youth, her red-headed beauty, her innocence and her ferocity. This is a story about a young girl fighting with all her life against fascism. As the first-hand memories of WWII are soon fading, we need story-tellers like Buzzy Jackson to carry them on. There is an urgency at this time to remember and acknowledge how women have stepped up and will step up to the fight. And we need just these kinds of books to give voice to the women who for so long were muted in the official accounts. An engrossing read.”
—Gwen Strauss, The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi GermanyBuzzy Jackson is the award-winning author of three books of nonfiction and has a PhD in history from University of California, Berkeley. A recent fellow at the Edith Wharton Writers-in-Residency, she is also a member of the National Book Critics Circle and writes for The Boston Globe and Bookforum.US